Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/84

 51 HISTOBY OF GOODHUE COUNTY 18, 1805, Lieutenant Pike, for the first time in history, spoke the English name of the Sioux chieftain Bed AYing. On his return trip he calls him by his French name, Aile Rouge. Continuing his narrative of the trip up the river, Pike says: "We encamped on the end of the island, and although not more than 11 o'clock, Avere obliged to stay all night; distance eighteen miles." Lieutenant Pike writes after that, leaving his camp on the island, he proceeded to the mouth of the Minnesota river, then known as St. Peter, when on the 23rd of September, 1805, he held a council with sonic of the Dakota chiefs, and purchased from the Dakota Indians a large portion of hind now known as Fort Snell- ing. Somewhere above the mouth of the St. Croix and below the mouth of the Minnesota rivers. Pike notes the following: "I ob- served a white Mag on shore today, and on landing observed il to be white silk; it was suspended over a scaffold, on which were laid four dead bodies, two enclosed in boards and two in bark. They were the bodies. 1 was informed, of two Sioux women who had Lived with two Frenchmen, one of their children and some other relative, two of whom died at St. Peter and two at St. Croix. This is the manner of the Sioux burial, when persons die a natural de-ath ; but when they are killed they suffer them to remain un- buried. Tins circumstance brought to my recollection the bones of a man I found on the hills below the Si. Croix. The jawbone I brought on board. He must have been killed on the spot. Distance twenty-four miles." The names of some of the chiefs thai signed the treaty grant- ing the United States the land spoken of above are familiar to our people. I quote from the "St. Paul Daily Democrat" of May 21, 1854, an article by Dr. Thomas Foster: "LeBoccasse should be written 'Bras <';isse,' or 'Broken Arm.' His Indian name was, t I believe, Wa-kan-tah-pay, and as late as 1825 he was still living at his small village. AYahpaykootans, on a lake near the Minne- sota, some five or six miles below Prairie La Fleeh, now LeSueur. The last named on the list is Le Bouef epie Marche, the 'Walking Buffalo.' or Tah-taw-kah-mah-me. He was a kind of sub-chief of old Wabasha, who was not present, being also called Red Wing, and it is from him that the name of the village at the head of Lake Pepin derives its name. lie was the father of AVah-koo-tay. Hie present old chieftain of the Red Wing band." After Pike had concluded the treaty at the mouth of the Minnesota, he continued on up the river, for, as he states, a distance of two hundred and thirty miles, and went into camp for some time. In the spring of 1806' he revisited Red AVing again; but I shall let him tell the story himself. "April 13, Sunday. — We embarked after breakfast. Alessrs. Frazer and ATood accompanied me, AVind strong ahead. They